[PD] expr alternative

[Andy Farnell]

On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:46:03 -0700
Marvin Humphrey <marvin at rectangular.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 08:36:39AM +0100, Andy Farnell wrote:
> > On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:16:18 +0900
> > i go bananas <hard.off at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > in that case, it might be as simple as a nice email to Shadrokh Yadegari to
> > > get his expr for pd license changed to LGPL too??


Marvin, Bill thank you both of you make fair points in favour of 
petitioning developers, and in particular, silence from fear of 
offending _is_ silly, and I heartily agree that if you don't ask 
you don't get.  It's not a discouragement to Matt to contact 
the author, who may well say sure lets do it. Neither do I valorise 
BSD, GPL or any other licence over another in this conversation. 
More original software, not dependent on a chain of licenses can be
trivial to re-license. Indeed I've done it more than once with a simple
email. Not to overplay the trauma of my "trouble" Bill, I've since 
made a full recovery you'll be pleased to know, and while the emotions
may have caused thoughts, there were no permanent scars. You're right 
though, I've put material out with shoddily scripted or ambiguous
licences, which is worse for everyone, and the truth was I didn't
care more than to abandon it to the public domain for pedagogical 
reasons assuming anyone who apprehended it would trivially produce 
their own improved version.

Guys, there's a more complex point I am trying to make here, and I 
don't think its heard because you abstracted the case and tried
to form generalisations. Great programming, lousy philosophy. :)

Corporate power and the societal assumptions that lead to its 
normalisation might come alive through a little story....

Eric Cartman wants a birthday party. Nay he demands it. And he 
demands that his friends attend. Since Cartman is popular, not being 
in his circle of friends means certain social exclusion, said friends 
are thus compelled to attend. Now Cartman is very clear. Kyle must 
bring a red mega-man, Stan must bring a blue mega-man. And Kenny, a 
green mega-man. It's not that Kenny's parents are guilty of the great 
sin of being poor, they could save up their food cheques and pawn 
them for a mega-man as Cartman rightly points out, but they don't 
believe in action figure violence. Mr Mc Cormick's dilemma is that he 
loves his son and wants him to be Cartmans friend, but resents Kennys 
happiness being used as a hostage to apply pressure on him, and mock 
his values as inadequate.

Anyway, Kenny buys the damn mega-man, swallows it, chokes and dies. 
The end.

Maybe I ought to be careful drawing too fine a comparison between 
pester power, or toxic childhood syndrome 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toxic-Childhood-Modern-Damaging-Children/dp/0752873598 
and the experiences of brand addicted infantilised adults working 
through their technology fetishes. "Oh but the shiny shiny one has 
this!" "Kyle Broflovskis mum bought him one!"

Kenny could beg Cartman to let him to the party without a mega-man 
present. As if.  The truth is he hates that whining manipulative 
narcissistic wanker, but his insecurity means he needs to be seen as 
his friend, so its easier to petition a more reliable care giver.


[All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any 
resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.]


-- 
Andy Farnell <padawan12 at obiwannabe.co.uk>